Patrick Ward appears in the courtroom at the Boulder County Jail on Thursday. He was charged with two counts of vehicular homicide in the weekend crash in Lyons that killed a Boulder cyclist.
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CLIFF GRASSMICK
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Patrick Ward, the Lyons resident arrested Saturday after police say he struck and killed Boulder cyclist Michel Van Duym while driving drunk on the town's Main Street, was charged Thursday with five crimes in the case -- including two counts of vehicular homicide.

Ward, 69, of Lyons appeared in custody in the Boulder County Jail's courtroom. He is being held on $25,000 bond.

Boulder prosecutors charged Ward with vehicular homicide as both driving under the influence, a Class 3 felony, and reckless driving, a Class 4 felony. If convicted on both counts, Ward would face a minimum prison sentence of six years.

Additionally, Ward was charged with DUI and DUI per se, both misdemeanors, and prohibited use of a weapon, as prosecutors say he had a firearm in his possession while under the influence of alcohol. The weapons charge is a Class 2 misdemeanor.

His preliminary hearing was set for June 6.

Larry Mertes, Ward's lawyer, has characterized the crash as "a tragic accident" and said there was "absolutely no evidence of intentional conduct."

The Boulder County Sheriff's Office said it appears Ward was driving his SUV westbound in the eastbound lane of Main Street on Saturday when the accident occurred, though it is possible he was attempting a turn at the time.

Witnesses administered CPR, but Van Duym, 46, died at the scene, according to sheriff's officials.

'We're the ones who are gonna die'

Among those who attended the hearing were Boulder residents and self-described avid cyclists Suzanne Ackley and her husband Ron Hata. The pair wore blue and white cycling jerseys from nonprofit cycling advocacy group Bicycle Colorado, which sported the motto, "Share the Road." They said they did not appear at the hearing on behalf of the organization.

Ackley said it was important to attend the hearing to show support for the cycling community, which might be "dented" by an incident like Saturday's. She and her husband have ridden along the same stretch of road where Van Duym was killed multiple times, she said.

"This case was very tragic because this gentleman was obviously carrying a lot of animosity and anger to begin with -- and he was apparently intoxicated," Ackley said of Ward. "Sticking a motor vehicle underneath that combination doesn't work."

"Every time an occasion like this happens, I always think of my husband," Ackley said of the fatal accident. "(Cyclists) are the vulnerable ones. We're the ones who go down. We're the ones who are gonna die.

"My heart goes out to (Van Duym's) family."

'These people don't belong in Lyons'

According to the Lyons Recorder newspaper, Ward in March 2010 made a series of statements before the town's planning and community development commission expressing displeasure with proposals to enhance and promote bike use in Lyons.

According to the paper, Ward said, "These people don't belong in Lyons. They certainly don't belong in the foothills around Lyons."

In response to an open records request from the Camera, the Lyons town administrator's office on Thursday released numerous documents reflecting comments by Ward at town meetings in 2010 and 2011 in which he expressed strong opinions on bicyclists -- as well as public art.

In a handwritten letter to town officials that was part of the Thursday records release, Ward -- who described himself as a resident of the St. Vrain Valley since 1950 and of Lyons since 1980 -- assailed the town's plans for, as he wrote, "a safe, convenient and well defined bicycle network for both experienced and (sic) novice cyclists."

Ward asked in the three-and-a-half-page letter, undated but apparently authored early in 2010, "Why are we inviting even more of them into our community?" noting that he had yet to see the "18- to 25-year-old gangs of cyclists coming from Boulder swarming into our restaurants, antiques shops, hardware store and liquor stores."

In the letter, Ward noted that the "uncourteous" cyclists "constantly break the law with impunity."

Then, he stated, "In Boulder I came within 1 foot of killing a cyclist while turning right onto 30th Street," only to encounter a cyclist riding against traffic and "making his own lane in the gutter."

The letter ends with a plea that officials do not "Boulderize Lyons," and that Lyons should stand alone, and "not become another Boulder."

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